Cities, Inequality and The Common Good
A super read at The World Post about the urban commons framework by Sheila Foster, Professor of Law and Co-Director of Urban Law Center at Fordham University.
The city is also a collective or common good, in that urban residents share a number of its resources — from the parks and opens spaces to streets and buildings, and even a city’s culture. Much like the natural environment, the urban environment too is subject to the disproportionate consumption by the wealthy, through economic and cultural domination of its resources, depriving the less well-off of many goods necessary to survive and thrive in cities.
This is why, all over the world, city residents are utilizing, and sometimes occupying, vacant land, abandoned or underutilized buildings, foreclosed houses, and endangered local cultural institutions.
Read the full article here.
Health Food Co-Op Celebrates 40 Years in the Mission
For all the talk of tech gentrifiers gobbling up San Francisco, Rainbow Grocery is still going strong in the rapidly changing Mission District.
The shelves of herbs and spices, fair trade coffee, and bulks of nuts and beans neatly stowed away in vitrines have customers spinning with options. Seguin says the offerings are a result of research and democracy. Rainbow’s employees vet the products that make it to the shelves – an equation that has made the grocery store a haven for vegetarian and health conscious consumers who care about where their food comes from…
“It’s kind of a wonderland for me,” said Philip Patrick, a shopper who treks by bus from Glen Park for his Rainbow groceries at 1745 Folsom St. “They seem to have everything in the world here. I’m in awe everytime I come.”
Read the full article here.
Fine Craft Collective pops up into Northfield Arts Guild gallery
A collective of artists in Southern Minnesota create a “pop-up shop” to support emerging artists and create a sustainable arts legacy.
Both Jeff and Leanne Stremcha agreed that as Northfield has grown, they feel that the connection to artists living in the community has been lost.
“A lot of sales in the art world are predicated on relationships,” Leanne said. “People like to know who they are buying art from and why that person makes art. They like to know why they should like their art — there’s nobody better than the artist themselves to tell a person that.”
Read the rest of the article here.